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Silver Stars.

Grant, Michael (author).

The first volume of Grant’s alternate history of WWII followed his girl soldiers as they endured boot camp, bonded with their platoons, and faced down both German artillery and discrimination, finding remarkable reserves of strength in the process. In this follow-up, the tone is much wearier, as Frangie, Rio, and Rainey face dispiriting drudgery and become inured to the grim realities of war. Rio, who’s become startlingly good at killing, and Frangie separately make their way into Italy by way of Sicily, while Rainey arrives on a dangerously amateurish espionage mission. Grant’s harrowing accounts of the battles there, especially at Monte Cassino, are both infuriating and heartbreaking, and his stark economy of language lays bare the pervasiveness of indiscriminate death. Rio in particular seems altered—she worries about how war is hardening her and whether she can still have the sweet future of marriage and family she envisioned, while simultaneously seeming to relish the ease with which she’s taken to soldiering, not to mention the power. Though he uses slightly gentler language than what was probably used in reality, Grant doesn’t shy away from the true-to-­history prejudice the women face, particularly Frangie and her family. Shreds of home-front news, meanwhile, add historical context. This series continues to be a fascinating, stunningly written examination of both war and women’s role in it, and this installment only adds to its already considerable depth.  Sarah Hunter